Economic considerations in product design have made multi-pole circuit breakers an attractive alternative to single-pole circuit breakers. A multi-pole circuit breaker for purposes of this disclosure is defined as a modular array of single-pole circuit breakers connected together by means of fastening. Each single-pole circuit breaker, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,016, includes its own positional (ON and OFF) operating handle protruding from the circuit breaker case. The handle controls the operating mechanism disposed within the circuit breaker enclosure. The ON position indicates that the circuit is closed, or in operation, while the OFF position indicates that the circuit is open, or disengaged.
Multi-pole circuit breakers require that all operating handles be set to their ON and OFF positions in unison. Simultaneous switching of the handles can be accomplished by various connecting bar designs. Currently, a number of methods exist for connecting circuit breaker handles. A conventional handle connector is simply a C-channel shaped metal bar enclosing all operating handles and attached thereto. Another design is a handle connector molded with the operating handles as a single piece. Yet another method uses an elongated rivet inserted through the operating handles which employs a handle tie bar as a common operating handle enclosure as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,525.
However, no known handle connector used with multi-pole circuit breakers completely eliminates the problem of time lag in opening or closing the associated electric circuit when an operator applies force to the end portion of the handle connector, rather than the middle portion thereof. In a four-pole circuit breaker-handle connector according to the prior art, a force applied to one end of the handle connector, the circuit breaker operating handle at the opposite end of the handle connector is subjected to a time delay because some of the applied force is dissipated through the handle connector instead of being applied to the operating handle at the opposite end. As the number of single-pole circuit breakers ganged together increases, the time lag becomes more problematic.